Bjorn Lomberg has been arguing that it’s quite likely global warming is happening, but even so, it does not make economic sense to pursue green policies above the basics: anti-malarial drugs, food, basic health care, eliminating trade barriers…etc. Here he is on Fareed Zakaria a while back:
According to the WSJ, Al Gore is still on the lecture circuit, and apparently Lomborg stood up recently at one of Gore’s lectures and challenged him to a debate on these very economic issues.
So far, Gore has declined.
I would truly hope that Gore would seek to debate his ideas in public with people who can reasonably disagree (Lomborg is an environmentalist).
Perhaps the good Gore’s done in somewhat normalizing the extreme elements (green true believers, anarchic anti-capitalists) of his party with what remains of his political authority…can be directed toward honest and open debate.
Or perhaps the (S)cience is clear and there’s nothing more should be done except justifying one’s own political and economic beliefs…
I still can’t quite believe he got a Nobel Prize for this.
Addition: I still reserve the right to my skepticism (global warming may not be happening), but there is a vigorous scientific debate about the effect of all that carbon being absorbed by the oceans. There are reasonable people on many sides and there are hordes of unreasonable ideologues beneath them. Al Gore just seems pretty confused.
